


smart talker

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 23:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15060380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Whispers, in captivity, tries to mess with his captors' heads.





	smart talker

Whispers is tranquil. Even after being kidnapped from his home base, even after being held captive in a basement, he is still tranquil. It is unusual, even for a man with power. It makes Capheus think of the time he rescued Silas Kebaka. Kebaka was a man used to carrying power, too, but that didn’t make him calmer at the moment of crisis. If anything, it made his panic worse.

Whispers’ calm is eerie. He uses it as a weapon. Capheus knows he is stupid to fall for it. But he does.

“What’s the name of your friend back there?” Whispers asks Will. “He seems to be your right hand man fairly consistently.”

Will is always the one to inject Whispers. Sometimes someone else has come in Capheus’ stead. Once Sun came down too, covering her face like Capheus. Nomi and Kala and Lito have stayed away. Whispers knows too much about Nomi and he knows nothing about Kala and Lito and hopefully never will.

Capheus usually accompanies Will, though. He and Will and Sun and Wolfgang, they, out of the eight, are the most accustomed to violence. Wolfgang isn’t here, and Sun is a little jumpy lately—she worries that if Whispers insults her she’ll attack him, even helpless as he is. So it’s Will and Capheus. They are used to violence. They are used to dangerous men like Whispers. And yet, Capheus still thinks he has never met anyone quite like Whispers before.

Will holds the back of Whispers’ neck so he can’t look back at Capheus. “I think you have other things to think about than gossiping about my cluster. You should be more worried about me.” He looks down at Whispers, and he is also calm. “I’m starting to lose my patience with you. Tell us where they have Wolfgang.”

Whispers says, “How does it feel to be led by a man like this?”

He clearly intends it for Capheus. Capheus says nothing.

“A kidnapper. A failure. A drug addict. A man who enjoys out of control violence. A man who let his own father die to save his own skin.” Whispers tilts his head slightly. Will pulls on his hair, forcing him to keep looking forward. But even from behind, Capheus can see the corners of his eyes drifting to look back at Capheus.

Capheus says, “We aren’t led by anyone. We work as equals.” He raises the gun a little higher. “I have no complaints about any of my family.”

“That must be your own English you’re using,” Whispers muses. “I can’t quite place the accent. But I will.”

Will injects him with the drug. He touches Capheus’ arm. “We’re leaving.”

They do.

“Don’t talk to him,” Will says. “He’ll get in your head.”

“I cannot stand and watch while someone insults a person I love, and say nothing.”

Will looks Capheus in the eye, and nods. “I understand. I…you know I know how you feel. But his words can’t hurt me. And anything he knows about us, any of us, he can use against us.”

“I will try not to speak.” But he can’t let Whispers just have the upper hand, either. And somehow, even though Whispers is the one who is the prisoner, it feels like he does.

* * *

Will is busy one day. He leaves the drug for Capheus and Sun to take down. Sun will do the injection—if Whispers tries to hit her or grab her, she can handle him easily. Capheus takes the back. He has gotten used to the weight of the gun.

“Oh, did something happen to Mr. Gorski?” Whispers asks when he sees them.

Sun steps forward. “You will sit still as I administer the drug.”

“It would be such a shame if something happened to him. After all, he seems to be the only member of your group who actually does anything.” Whispers shrugs. “Without him, you’ll probably just fall apart.”

Sun readies the needle.

“Of course, your friend in the back there does his part. Your…Kenyan friend?” Whispers smiles. “I finally placed the accent. It took me all night, but I figured it out. Tell me, do you know his name? He’s close-lipped.”

“I have no interest in talking to you.”

“No?”

As Sun reaches out with the needle, Whispers half stands and shoves her with his shoulder. He fails to move her—she twists his arm so that he gasps and easily holds him still for the injection.

But she doesn’t stop him from looking back the way Will might. He looks back, and his eyes meet Capheus’s. It doesn’t matter—the drugs are still in his system, and no connection will form. But it still feels like he’s looking into Capheus’ soul.

“How does it feel to sit by while your friends hurt me?” he asks, quietly. “Or stand by, I suppose. Would you say you are just following orders?”

Possible answers: _You deserve everything you get. They aren’t really hurting you. It’s self defense. My friends are…we are justified. I know myself to be as guilty as they are, but we’re not…_

“You care about them. You care about everyone, maybe. You’re a good man, I think. I try not to judge a man by his cluster.” Whispers smiles slightly. It’s unnerving seeing him try to be kind. “You call them your family. Do you think you owe them your loyalty when—”

Sun backhands him harshly across the cheek. He chokes on whatever word would next have come out of his mouth.

“Shut. Up.” Sun shoves him down hard against the seat. “Unless you are giving us useful information, we don’t want to hear your bullshit.”

“Is that Mr. Gorski speaking?” Whispers asks. “Or is that violent streak all your own? How does it feel, watching your family mistreat a prisoner?” That last part is to Capheus. Capheus does not respond.

Sun responds with a punch to the gut. Capheus flinches. He knows Sun’s skills—he’s used Sun’s skills, and they’ve saved him time and time again—but seeing them used like this, against a man who is defenseless, is different.

“He took Wolfgang,” she says when they step outside. Her face is tight. “I don’t really care if I hurt him.”

She is wild lately. She did not kill her brother, and maybe that act of restraint in itself is wearing at her discipline. She regrets it a little bit. Capheus knows this because he can feel her regrets in his own belly.

“His talk is only talk,” he says. He’s parroting Will. But they all parrot each other these days, so that’s nothing new.

* * *

Then Sun and Will are following up a lead together, so Capheus goes down with Daniela instead. Their reasons for keeping Kala and Lito and Nomi out of this still hold, and Daniela is fine with handling a gun. So she takes the back, and Capheus takes the needle. He hasn’t injected anyone before, but he’s seen Will do this enough times by now that he knows the drill.

Whispers smiles at him as he steps forward. Neither of them speaks. Then, as Capheus takes hold of his arm, he grabs Capheus with handcuffed hands and tries to twist his arm. Capheus drops the syringe to free his hands and flawlessly executes a maneuver he knows because Will knows it. Usually he would call on Sun for this, but the Will part of him steps in first—Will knows how to handle Whispers. Will is, in fact, always ready and eager to deal with Whispers.

Whispers says, “Who is controlling your body right now?” He’s a little out of breath.

Capheus says, “I am.”

He gives the shot.

Whispers says, “You won’t be able to back out of this. These people are your family? But you have another family too, don’t you?” He widens his eyes. “Perhaps you should consider how your actions might affect them.”

“They will be fine. I will protect them.”

“Through violence? With the help of your cluster? You are going down a bad road. If you stay with them, you’ll get dragged down too. Already, you are far from blameless.”

Capheus says, “I have never claimed I am not culpable. And what risks there are, I take with my friends.”

He leaves.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the following prompt: "Capheus and/or Will, Humiliation in the context of them holding Whispers down and he shit-talking them." This isn't really humiliation (especially since I've already covered that bingo square) but I hope it somewhat fills the prompt.  
> Comments are much appreciated, or come talk to me on tumblr at convenientalias.


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